2026/07/07 by Alexis Bibeau, Alexandre Pelletier, Hubert Cadieux +1 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0008423926101310
openalex publication_date 2026/07/07 · openalex created_date 2026/07/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/08
Abstract State inaction and the escalating threat of climate change have led groups within the environmental movement to adopt more radical political tactics such as sabotage, vandalism and road blockades. How do citizens view such radical actions, and what determines their tolerance for them? Using survey data measuring environmental preoccupation, attribution of responsibility for climate change and attitudes toward thirteen contestation methods, this article maps the structure of public attitudes toward radical environmental activism. The results are threefold. First, tolerance has a clear threshold: citizens tolerate peaceful actions, are ambivalent toward disruptive tactics, and reject destructive and violent ones. Second, environmental preoccupation increases tolerance for nonviolent disruption but not for destructive or violent methods. Third, tolerance for radical tactics depends on whether respondents blame governments, corporations, or individuals for climate change. The article shows how responsibility attribution shapes legitimacy judgments about activism and underscores the limits of disruptive contestation in democracies.